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Ways to help you save interest on credit card balances

Sometimes it's hard to keep track of all of one's bills--and credit card balances are just one of them. You can try to keep receipts and sift through your mail, but wouldn't it be helpful to have an online tool that could help you track your purchases as well as organize ways to pay off your balances?

We asked CafeMoms who have Chase credit cards to try Chase Blueprint. It's an online tool available to Chase credit card holders where you can see what you've bought, decide the amount of money you need to pay off your balance and over how many months you want to do it.

How do you usually keep track of your credit card purchases, and how do you decide how to pay down your credit card balances?

Our household is unique in today's financial environment. Between DH and I, we have 15 credit cards (I have 7 and he has 8); 3 of which are Chase (1 of mine). Because of the way we deal with credit, we keep a detailed budget down to the average percentage rate across all cards each month to ensure we are managing our debt wisely. Since we have our home budget, I never really paid attention to budget management software associated with any of our cards, until CM opened my eyes to Blueprint on my Slate card.

Blueprint was extremely easy to set up and use. Just a few clicks and it hooks straight into your card where you can track your spending, budget for large purchases, and find ways to pay down your balance. Unfortunately, my credit card was being used as a holding place due to its low interest rate, so I did not have any purchases to track. However, I have used this feature on other cards when we review our budget, and the interface on Blueprint for this feature was very user friendly and easy to follow. This feature would be a great asset for any family trying to track their spending and set up a reasonable budget for their family.

It even has a "Set Budget" option, so you can go in and set how much you want to spend in each category. The only thing I felt this was missing as compared to other cards is a pie chart of all expense categories. I think this is a powerful tool to help grasp how much is wasteful spending.

The Full Pay option is another great feature for those not currently budgeting their money correctly, because it tells you how much to pay each month in order to fully pay off specific expenses, while still maintaining a revolving balance for other purchases.

The Split option allows you to track progress in paying down a large purchase, and determine how quickly you want to pay off that purchase. The option was super easy to use, and it broke down the interest payments for different payment options to show how much money you will save in paying it off quicker, but also provided options for staying in your budget. I could see this being very valuable for large purchases, especially if you are trying to decide where to pay off extra money.

The Finish It option is a simple tool to help you determine a monthly payment in order to pay off the card. Its again useful if you are comparing two options to put extra money to pay something off. Say you have extra money to pay off a car loan, another credit card, or a Chase card. You can use this tool to calculate all 3 and see where you will save the most money. The calculators can all be used for other financial management, which is extremely useful. However, if used with the purchases on the Chase card, it will also be tracked on your statement so you can see your status, and be proud of the progress you have made towards your goal.

I liked all the options with Blueprint. I think it provides simple budgeting tools for busy people.

I also wanted to say thanks to Cafemom and Chase for choosing me to be a part of this influencer! I have been a Chase customer for almost 8 years and have never taken a look at the blueprint program before. I was very impressed that this service is free and gives the customer many options including, tracking your purchases and breaking down your purchases into categories. Blueprint is something that I will definitely take advantage of from now on. Knowing that I can use my credit card for small purchases and then pay it in full to avoid any interest fees makes me feel a lot more comfortable when swiping my card!! :)

First
I want to say thank you to Cafemom for picking me. I love being able
to help out other mom's by giving my opinion.

Hubby
and I have been a chase customers since 2006. Hubby uses the card
more frequently then I do since he likes to use it to buy gas. I use
the card for mainly for online purchases.

I
had never used blueprint until I was picked for the influencer
program. It's a great program and so simple to use. It was easy to
sign up for and did not take long at all. I use the full pay option
but I think it would be very convenient for those who don't pay there
balance in full.

First off... I just want to say that I LOVE Chase as a whole... They have excellent customer service and are always friendly and willing to work with you...

With that said.... I also waited until my hubby got home to sign up for blueprint. Sign up was really easy and even let you know that if you NEEDED help, there were customer service reps available to you. I absolutely LOVE that it helps you pay down on different purchases that you choose to save interest. We do not pay our card off every month and always incur interest so I LOVE this feature.

We will be using this feature to pay off our Christmas shopping this year and will probably have it paid off a lot sooner than we normally do and I am ecstatic about it!

Thank you so much for choosing me for this influencer program... I never really put much thought into the chase blueprint program, but now im so happy we signed up!

I will rely more right now my Dad is in ICU and he is over 3 hours South of me so until I know more on him I am not doing much in here just checking in Sorry to all but I am not leaving just MIA right now!

Send me email updates about messages I've received on the site and the latest news from The CafeMom Team.
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